NY Times: Gov. Spitzer linked to prostitution ring

[JSojourner]

Sptizer should resign, or be impeached.  He should be indicted.  Crime is crime, whether committed by a Democrat or Republican.  I'm ashamed of him.  I am not ashamed of my past support for Spitzer and I shouldn't be.  But I can no longer support him.  He's a criminal and has broken the law.

I know, I know -- Larry Craig, David Vitter, Jeff Gannon...the list of Republicans with sex scandals (possibly criminal) goes on and on.  But so what?  We're Democrats.  We need to clean up our house first.  Spitzer campaigned as a law enforcer.  Now, he admits to being a lawbreaker.  Sorry -- I have no sympathy for the man.  I *am* sorry, of course, for all the pain he has caused to his wife, family, friends and supporters.  He should be ashamed.

[JSojourner]

You know, I just sat through three news reports on this in a row and not a single one of them mentioned that Spitzer is a Democrat.  Typical.

Hell, I guess we should just be lucky they aren't saying he is a Republican on the front page now and then issuing a page 12 "retraction" three days later.

Actually, Soulty -- lots of news shops have policies that strongly discourage reporters and anchors from mixing party with scandal.  For example, the story of David Vitter (which received far less coverage than Spitzer) was reported by certain networks as "Senator David Vitter of Louisiana..." not Republican David Vitter. 

When I ran a newsroom, I allowed it -- as long as it was done equally for both parties. 

Often, the party becomes obvious anyway -- based on who defends or condemns the accused.

[JSojourner]

Dude, step into reality. Spitzer won 69-29. Your vote did not matter then, so why do you act as if this scandal stabs you with a knife? If you hadn't've voted for Spitzer and instead voted for Faso, nothing would've changed.

Because it was an affirmative vote for me, not one that I made under the *lesser of two evils* scenario that is often presented.

The fact of whether the vote mattered to the final outcome is immaterial.  Only very rarely does one's vote really affect the final result in any election.

Well, it happens. Just remember that politics is little more than a parlor game where people compete for the right to fulfill their ambition for power. If you remember that simple point for everyone, it should come as little surprise that the majority of politicians are scumbags.

Well, look, I cast no aspersions about the sanctity of politicians, but I would certainly like to see better than what we've gotten out of Spitzer, which is quite frankly, much worse than Pataki, something I thought not possible.

Sam, can you fill me in on Pataki?  I always kinda liked him and wonder what the scandal was there?

[JSojourner]

Dude, step into reality. Spitzer won 69-29. Your vote did not matter then, so why do you act as if this scandal stabs you with a knife? If you hadn't've voted for Spitzer and instead voted for Faso, nothing would've changed.

Because it was an affirmative vote for me, not one that I made under the *lesser of two evils* scenario that is often presented.

The fact of whether the vote mattered to the final outcome is immaterial.  Only very rarely does one's vote really affect the final result in any election.

Well, it happens. Just remember that politics is little more than a parlor game where people compete for the right to fulfill their ambition for power. If you remember that simple point for everyone, it should come as little surprise that the majority of politicians are scumbags.

Well, look, I cast no aspersions about the sanctity of politicians, but I would certainly like to see better than what we've gotten out of Spitzer, which is quite frankly, much worse than Pataki, something I thought not possible.

Sam, can you fill me in on Pataki?  I always kinda liked him and wonder what the scandal was there?

No scandal, just classic Albany, somewhat incompetent, but not overly so.  Tax and spend and screw upstate NY.    A lot of this has to do with the NY governmental system, however.

Thanks.

I know there was some talk of him running for President, and I wasn't sure what prevented him.  I didn't know if it was a corruption scandal or just the realization that he was ineffective as Governor.